9 Technologies Security Researchers Will Break At Black Hat

This week's Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas will showcase hacks, tools and ideas that will once again challenge the way we think about IT security. Here are nine technologies that will be on the firing line as security researchers discuss and demonstrate vulnerabilities and exploits.

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The idea of hacking the most basic layer of a computer's software platform is hardly new, but the industry has worked hard to develop countermeasures to bootkit attacks. Security researchers at this year's Black Hat will show there's still more work to be done. In one talk, researchers with Mitre will offer proof-of-concept attacks that remain persistent in the BIOS after reboot, as well as a tool that detects these attacks through timing side-channels.

Some researchers are also taking the opportunity offer additional tools meant to counter some of the recent bootkits that circumvent UEFI security. Researchers with ReversingLabs plan to introduce a new Rootkit Detection Framework for UEFI (RDFU) while at the same time demonstrating a proof-of-concept bootkit for Apple OSX to show RDFU's effectiveness.

Ericka Chickowski specializes in coverage of information technology and business innovation. She has focused on information security for the better part of a decade and regularly writes about the security industry as a contributor to Dark Reading. View Full Bio